Rob Becker's offbeat one-man show, Defending the Caveman, claims it is about to set a Broadway record -- but Jackie Mason begs to differ.

Becker's full-evening comic monologue about the differences between men ("hunters") and women ("gatherers"), will become the longest-running non-musical solo performance in Broadway history when it plays its 399th performance July 17 at the Helen Hayes Theatre.

The previous record-holder, Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, ran 398 performances.

But another stand-up comedian, Jackie Mason, is claiming he holds the record. Producer Jyll Rosenfeld said Mason's late 1980s show, The World According to Me, ran 570 performances.

However, Becker spokesman Joel W. Dein said Mason's show opened under that title, then closed for several months, then reopened under the same title for a total of 570, which he says doesn't count. Becker's performances have run consecutively. Mason has done several other solo shows, including the current Love Thy Neighbor, which was approaching 100 performances as of June 28.

Caveman and Neighbor, both of which play only six shows per week, still have a long way to go before either of them beats the all-time Broadway record for a solo show: Victor Borge's Comedy in Music, a musical comedy monologue, played 849 performances in the 1960s.